Day 2: Children play ‘Mere Hisse Ki Dhoop Kahan Hai’ staged

GJ REPORT
JAMMU, JUL 17: On the second day of Natrang’s Children Theatre Festival ‘Celebrating Childhood’, Nationally acclaimed children play ‘Mere Hisse Ki Dhoop Kahan Hai’ written and directed by Padamshree Balwant Thakur and presented by Natrang mesmerized the jam-packed audiences at Abhinav Theatre here.
Considered to be the longest living play by children in India, this play which Balwant Thakur wrote for UNICEF way back in 1990 on population education stood best in India and later represented the country at the Asia-Pacific meet held in Bangkok, Thailand. Advocating the idea of using theatre as an effective tool of education and the transformation of the society, this play of Natrang has already created a history for having been successfully presented across the length and breadth of the country including in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Goa, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Shimla, Jabalpur, Chennai, Bangaluru, Jaipur, Lucknow and over 30 other major cities of India. The National School of Drama also recognized this play as one of the most successful theatrical presentation for Arts-In Education programmes.
This play ‘Mere Hisse Ki Dhoop Kahan Hai’, deals with the hazards of population explosion and very subtly highlights every deplorable aspect of population explosion. The irony, which children have to live with, the obstacles they have to face, are brought out in an intrepid manner. Beginning with malnutrition, inadequate food and clothing to seeking admissions in schools and overcrowded classes with no jobs and glaring shortcomings, practically every damaging result of over population is dealt with.
The children who played different roles included Sanchita Dubey, Agam Kaur, Gopi Sharma, Saba Jamwal, Mihir Gujral, Vrinda Gujral, Vedhant Suri, Saanvi Anand, Rudra Kohli, Vrinda Sharma, Shreya Gupta, Sanya Gupta, Chirag Anand, Riya Jandial, Sanket Bhagat, Divyan Sharma, Ayn Bhola, Sanyam Gupta and Ananya Verma. The music of the play was scored by Anil Tickoo and Sanjeev Gupta rendered rhythm in the play. The lights of the play were designed by Pankaj Sharma and executed by Brijesh Avtaar Sharma whereas the sound was rendered by Lokesh Chander. The allied arrangements of the show were looked after by Mohd Yaseen, Shivam Singh, Bhisham Gupta, Sandeep Kumar, Abhi Bargotra, Goutam Sharma and Mahikshit Singh.
On the third day of Natrang Children Theatre Festival, Balwant Thakur’s yet another nationally acclaimed Hindi play ‘Aap Hamaare Hain Kaun’ will be staged tomorrow at 5.30 pm at Abhinav Theatre.